Jacqueline Woodson

“I used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.”

Jacqueline Woodson has received numerous awards for her middle-grade and young
adult books, which include the National Book Award Win for Brown Girl Dreaming, multiple Coretta Scott King Awards and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Miracle’s Boys.

Born on February 12, 1963, in Columbus, Ohio, Woodson grew up in Greenville, S.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. A former drama therapist for runaways and homeless children in New York City, she now writes full-time. Woodson also enjoys reading the works of emerging writers and encouraging young people to write; heated political conversations with her friends; and sewing.